Last year I published The Barr Foundation-Hostetter Political Team to set out non-profit advocacy spending by the foundation of Boston billionaire Amos Hostetter through 2020, then the most recent data available. Today I’m updating that with donations through 2021 and the addition of some additional advocacy groups. And no, uh-uh, fuhgeddabouditt, no way will you…
Author: Maurice Cunningham
Professor Cunningham Ph.D., J.D., is author of Dark Money and the Politics of School Privatization. He retired in 2021 as associate professor of political science at the University of Massachusetts at Boston but he continues his research into dark money in politics. His two reports on the dark money threat to public education are available on the Network for Public Education website: Merchants of Deception: Parent Props and their Funders, and “A Citizen’s Guide to the School Privatization Movement” (forthcoming). His work has been distributed through the Independent Media Institute and has appeared in The Bucks County Beacon (PA), Shepherd Express (WI), Alternet, Tampa Bay Times, The Daily Progress (VA), Idaho Education News, New Hampshire Bulletin, The Detroit Free Press, and The Portland Press-Herald (ME), and at Diane Ravitch’s Blog, dianeravitch.net.. His work on dark money in Massachusetts has earned him the 2017 Distinguished Public Service Award from the Massachusetts Association of School Committees and the 2018 MTA President’s Award from the Massachusetts Teachers Association. Education historian Diane Ravitch has named Professor Cunningham to her "Honor Roll" on her education blog. He can be reached at maurice.cunningham153@gmail.com.
Publications that focus upon Massachusetts Politics include two co-written chapters in the edited volume The Politics of Massachusetts Exceptionalism: Reputation Meets Reality. He has also written “Defeating ‘Death with Dignity’: Morality and Message in a Massachusetts Referendum” in American Catholic Studies (2014); “Massachusetts Politics 2012” in New England Journal of Political Science (2012); “A Christian Coalition for Catholics?: The Massachusetts Model,” Review of Religious Research (2009); and “Massachusetts Republicans: the 2004 Challenge to Democratic Legislative Hegemony,” in New England Journal of Political Science (2008).
Moms for Liberty Summit Infiltrated by Sexual Predator!!!
Dear Ms. Tina Descovich and Ms. Tiffany Justice, As spokespersons for Moms for Liberty, you know there is no group that has done so much to protect the innocence of America’s children as you! Whether it’s disappearing LGBTQ teens or exposing communists’ scheme to turn American children into “little sexual weirdo(s)” you’ve led our nation’s…
Moms for Liberty and Hitler: Love the Message, Hate the Messenger
Moms for Liberty has been trying to apologize for a chapter head quoting Hitler as an authority on public education but has a problem: they need the quote, they just don’t want the attribution. To recap, an Indiana chapter head put out a newsletter quoting Hitler: “He alone, who OWNS the youth, GAINS the future.”…
Moms for Liberty Quotes Hitler. It’s No Accident.
The Indianapolis Star has the Moms for Liberty headline of the day: “Moms for Liberty’s Hamilton County chapter quotes Hitler in first newsletter.” This isn’t some overzealous nutty volunteer. M4L carefully vets its chapter heads. Here’s some more from the Star: Just below The Parent Brigade’s masthead was a quote Hitler used at a Nazi…
Maura Healey Leads Bi-Partisan Push to Sanctify Dark Money
As Matt Stout of the Boston Globe shows today in Healey created a nonprofit to bankroll her transition into office. But, the donors are secret, and so is how much they gave her, Governor Maura Healey has joined the bi-partisan effort sanctify dark money in Massachusetts politics. Shame. The Healey-Driscoll Transition Committee, Inc. paid for…
More on Walton and Barr Stakes in Voices for Academic Equity
Last week the Boston Globe’s Opinion page announced the principle that the funders of interest groups should be identified to the public! I almost swooned! But I recovered fast when I saw that it meant only union funded interests and not the Globe’s corporate allies. Boy Scout helpful as I always am I posted Boston…
Boston Globe and Corporate Elites Prop Up Their MCAS
In a weekend editorial the Boston Globe establishes the important principle that the funders of interest groups should be identified to the public. Then the paper went about establishing that this principle should not apply to interest group allies of the Boston Globe. I’ll fill in what the Globe left out. Here is the principle:…
The Big Shill: Jon Keller and Keri Rodrigues Conjure Some Sunday Morning Hocus Pocus
Jon Keller hosted Keri Rodrigues of the Walton-Koch National Parents Union on Sunday to plump the corporate wish list on MCAS testing. If you don’t accept the masquerade the appearance was revealing. The part about the statewide testing falls against the unstated backdrop of teachers’ unions seeking legislative modification of MCAS. The Walton political team…
Democrats for Education Reform: Let’s Meet the Funders
I often point out Democrats for Education Reform ’s far-right patrons like Rupert Murdoch and the Waltons but I haven’t given DFER MA’s Boston patrons enough attention. Let’s try. First, DFER is really at least three different legal structures under one roof. There’s the DFER PAC and DFER SuperPAC which have to report contributions and…
Educators for Excellence is Providing Lunch, The Waltons and Boston Oligarchs Are Picking Up the Tab
According to a recent Boston Teachers Union newsletter, Educators for Excellence “has been hosting free lunches at schools.” Let’s look at who’s picking up the tab. I won’t make you hang in suspense—E4E is a puppet of billionaire privatizers, Alice Walton’s fantasy of what a well-behaved teachers’ union should be. Remember Banned in Boston (Globe):…